Charlie and Claire
by Oh Mina Obscener
Summary: For CharlieClaire fans.please R&R!It's sad in my opinion, but maybe not for some. Warning: character death(s).
1. Attraction

1Disclaimer: I looove this new show. Its obviously not mine. If it was.. Well I wouldn't be here writing fanfics about it that's for sure. Need I say more?

A/N: this fic meets my dysfunctional brain's odd needs. Follow me? Hope you enjoy but if you don't, then, well my day certainly wont be affected. If you like it or want to leave a comment, please, please do so. Via the fantastic lil button at the bottom of the screen. Reviews more than welcome... c'mon people, R & R !! :P

Summary: The first knot sealing Charlie and Claire's relationship. Wether it be romantic or the timeless phrase "just friends" is up to you... (for now)Here goes chap 1

Claire's P.O.V

I give myself a secret name. No one can know it, of course, because then it would be as public and wasted as the name my parents gave me. A secret name is one that only I know, and it speaks to me in a way my name can't. My birth name means nothing to me. I will look up of it is called across a room or recognize it written out on a sheet of paper for all to stare at, but it was given to me when I was a newborn and my traits that define me were not formed or part of me yet. Now I have a good idea of who I am. And my secret name reminds me of at least part of me. As clear a reflection as if I had stared into a still pool after a drenching desert rain on a clear winter's night. The more I think of it in my head, it strengthens. But if it is used like a birth name for daily reference, it becomes mortal as my body. All in all, I bind my soul to a thought, thinner that a vapor of air or as fleeting and unreachable as he furthest star from the earth. A thought cannot die, therefore my soul cannot. It is a stitch without flaw, a plan without glitch. Unto it I will hold.

Can my baby hear my thoughts? My poetic, probably deranged inner thoughts? I need water, but have none.. My throat is dry and getting scratchy. I cough, but that only makes it worse. My back hurts like hell. This baby need to come out. But then when I think about it, I don't want it to. Not here, not on this island.

Jack. Jack is a doctor. But still, a doctor without equipment. Still, is it some small coincidence that there is a doctor here and I'm due in several weeks? Probably not. Despite the uncomfortable heat I find myself chilled. There's something on the island. Not on the beach, but in the jungle. I don't know what though. I think its some kind of animal. A massive one. But there is a still quality that hangs in the air about me and my fellow survivors that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Supernatural. I try not to think about it and close my eyes. So thirsty.

"Claire?" Charlie asked carefully. She looked thin, despite her bulging abdomen. Thin in her face, pale and dehydrated.

"Charlie.. Hey." She responded slowly, attempting to sit up and almost toppling back when her elbow wouldn't lock to support her.

"Woah, easy there love." He mumbled casually and caught her behind her shoulder, helping her sit back up. The beach was too sunny for her, he thought.

" You look awful." He commented on her pale features and tired eyes.

"Thanks." She said.

"You don't actually look your best either." He smiled.

" Listen, Claire. There's still not much water. And this sun cant be good for you. You need some shade." He gestured toward an empty spot at the edge of the beach that was shaded by the lengthening shadow of the trees. She squinted and looked skeptical.

" I don't know Charlie.... I like it by the water best."

Charlie sighed.

"I know, its comforting for the sound of the waves to be so close." He sat down and tossed a rock into the blue water, skipping it three times on the surface.

"Mm." She agreed and stared down past her shoulder at a random spot on the ground.

"But I don't think it's a good idea. This sun is getting you more and more dehydrated, and eventually that fair complexion of yours _will_ get burnt." She smiled and looked down.

"Pretty please?" He reached under her chin with two fingers and lifted her face up, her eyes meeting his.

" I'll sit with you and we can talk..." He was immediately sorry he said this. Was he hitting on this poor pregnant girl that was stuck on an island with him? He was relieved when she laughed quietly.

"About?"

"Anything you want to." He removed his fingers from her chin and pouted his lower lip dramatically

"I guess you're right Charlie." She got to her feet and followed him across the beach to the shaded patch of white sand . Now just to come up with her secret name.....

please reviiiiieeeewwwww :P I am a review-starved thirteen year old probably still sitting at my computer waiting for a nice kind generous person to come bumming around and review my lonely little story ....Waiting for Lost to come on Wednesday night ... sigh eighth grade is stressful


	2. Night Terrors

**For Claire/Charlie fans only :)**

**Disclaimer:** I love this new show. Its obviously not mine. If it was.. Well I wouldn't be here writing fanfics about it that's for sure.

**A/N:** this fic meets my dysfunctional brain's odd needs. Hope you enjoy but if you don't, then, well my day certainly wont be affected. If you like it or want to leave a comment, please, please do so. Via the fantastic lil button at the bottom of the screen. Reviews more than welcome...

**Summary**: This wrote itself. Nothing really adventurous or thrilling happens here, but what does go one is enough for me :D .

She was thrashing through the jungle in the dark. Sounds in the trees like whispering were everywhere. And she was following the crying. Hey baby's crying. She had no memory or having the child, and just knew that when she should be getting closer to the noise, it seemed to draw away. The whispering became clearer.

_You alone have to raise this child... No other..._ _Your goodness must be an influence in the development of this child! No other..._

"Why just me?" She screamed as she ran. Suddenly in front of her was a crib. A white crib standing alone in the midst of the trees and ferns and suffocating underbrush. The crying faded and her pale hands searched through the blankets. Her heart was beating faster and faster and screams were catching in her throat. Suddenly her hand swere submerged in warm, thick liquid.....

"Claire!" Charlie yelled. He gripped her shoulders and ducked as her flailing arm almost came in contact with his face. Her eyes opened and then she stopped altogether, breathing hard and wide-eyed.

"My baby, my baby.." She repeated feverently.

"Claire, it was a nightmare, you still have your baby!" He assured her, and placed his hand on her stomach. She nodded her understanding and looked around them. Charlie had been sleeping just feet away. It didn't look like anyone had been woken up besides him. They were all about thirty yards or so away, only mounds under blankets. The ones that hadn't gone to the caves that is. Now that Jack was at the caves, Charlie was spending his spare time trying to coax and convince Claire that she'd be safer where there was a doctor, but there was no turning her.

Earlier that night, minutes before Claire had fallen asleep, she and Charlie had been sitting side by side, their backs propped up by a stray palm tree that stood a bit closer to the water than the other trees. The stars were bright and vivid, and the dark waves lapped the shore calmly. A slight breeze blew through their hair. "You know, you really should come with me to the caves." He said through his drowsiness.

Claire sighed and looked up at him.

" You keep saying I should come with you, or follow you, or you'll take me to the caves."

"Yea? So?" Charlie pressed.

"Well the thing is, I don't see you going to the caves any time soon. And I don't want to come. So you'll have to head off there yourself one of these times and stop threatening me with it." Her accent wove around her words pleasantly. For a moment she was caught up in Charlie's intense gaze.

"Oh, and leave you here? Leave you in the care of, hmm, lets see, a dozen strangers, the lone ranger," He tilted his head in the direction of Sawyer's shrine he had made for himself down the beach. "And the poor asthmatic girl?"

Claire was swept up again by the good intentions of Charlie, and his piercing blue stare.

"I can take care of myself." She blurted out before she realized how ridiculous it sounded. She didn't exactly look capable of much in her condition.

"_Can_ you now?" Charlie leaned back a little, amused. Claire laughed at herself and tucked her hair behind her ears.

"Perhaps I can't. But you think you're the one who will?"

"Well yea. Subtly of course. It's a delicate matter, you being so stubbornly independent, yet at the present time rather incapable." Charlie grinned.

"You look tired." He said finally.

"Yea. I've done absolutely nothing all day but I'm beat."

"G'Night. I'll be right over here if you need me."

"Now there'll be no reason I'll need you Charlie." She said, which actually meant, "thank you Charlie that was so sweet of you."

"Well, just in case. I'm here." He shrugged his shoulders lightly and spread out a blanket not far from her own bed. She covered herself up to her shoulders to ward off the cool night air and closed her eyes, drifting off quickly.

Now, six hours later, Charlie glanced at her, concerned as she sat up and pushed the covers back like she was going to get up. But instead, she just sat there with her hands in front of her.

"Are you alright?"

"Of course." She said quietly.

"That was half-hearted." He said, understanding why.

"Hmph." was her reply.

"Want to talk about it?"

"It was just a bad dream, Charlie. I woke up, and you weren't there. My baby was gone. I started hearing whispers, and my baby crying, so I followed them."

"On the beach?" Charlie asked.

"In the jungle." She replied. She took a breath before continuing.

"Eventually I came to a crib. He was crying in there, but when I looked in it was all blankets." Buried in the memory, Claire started rocking back and forth slowly.

"I was digging through the layers of white baby blankets, but when I got to the bottom it was all ..." She stopped, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Charlie moved next to her and put both his arms around her shoulders.

"It was what?" He whispered.

"Blood." She mumbled. Lost in the memory, she held both her palms up to face her, and to her surprise they too were covered in blood.

"What happened?" Charlie let Claire go to hold her wrists up for examination. The moon bathed her hands in a soft light, but it was still unmistakably blood.

"You dug your fingernails into your skin... That was one hell of a nightmare."

"I didn't even notice the pain until just then." She said.

"Jack will clean it up so it wont get infected." Charlie told her.

"He's asleep. The moon is real low, so it wont be long 'till morning but still."

"Not now." Charlie said. " I can fix you up for the time being. You'll be fine. He'll have some antibiotic cream for it I bet. Seems there was a lot on the plane. Here." He tore the bottom piece off of his extra-long tee shirt and stood up.

"Don't go 'way." He said as he jogged to the beach barefoot. She watched him dunk the cloth into the water and then bring it back. He wrung it out and then ripped it in half.

"The salt from the water will sting but it should make it heal faster. It wont hurt it at any rate." He told her as he took her wrist. Grimacing, she watched him gently fold the cloth around her palm and tie it off securely before doing the same to the second one.

" That's better. Now to bed, Doctors orders." He helped her lie back down. The stars were already fading in the east. He was about to go back to his blanket when he reconsidered. Bringing the blanket up next to hers, he crawled underneath and folded his arms for a pillow. Despite herself, she nudged closer to Charlie, and she felt his arm wrap around her warmly. Closing her eyes, she hoped that dawn would hold off a little longer.

TBC


	3. Off The Paths

For Claire/Charlie fans only :)

Disclaimer: I love this new show. Its obviously not mine. If it was.. Well I wouldn't be here writing fanfics about it that's for sure.

A/N: this fic meets my dysfunctional brain's odd needs. Hope you enjoy but if you don't, then, well my day certainly wont be affected. If you like it or want to leave a comment, please, please do so. Via the fantastic lil button at the bottom of the screen. Reviews more than welcome...

Summary: This wrote itself. Nothing really adventurous or thrilling happens here, but what does go one is enough for me :D .

Despite Claire's wishes, dawn came all too soon. The pale light of morning replaced the moonlight, and slowly the orange sun inched over the clipped blue horizon, finding the two lying comfortably side by side. Charlie woke first, and lie peacefully for a few moments, thinking how good it felt to wake up next to this girl. He recalled waking up to strangers after a long night full of activities he had not indulged in with Claire, and still he had never reached this feeling of fulfilment. It shocked him that this emotion could grasp him after just holding her for half the night.

"Charlie?" Claire asked as she opened her eyes and rolled over to face him.

"Hm?"

"Does it have to be morning already?"

"I know it. You didn't get a lot of sleep, with waking up in the night and all...I shouldn't have kept you up so late talking.."

She shook her head, blonde waves falling over her shoulders."That's not what I meant."

Charlie smiled. He had silently hoped she had meant she wanted to lie longer in his arms. And she had.

"Ironic." He mumbled.

"What?" Claire asked.

"You and I are on a tropical island, sleeping on the beach, and we still have to get up at the crack of dawn to do..nothing."

Claire laughed softly.

He loved her laugh. It captured Claire, stubbornly independent Claire, pleading for friendship Claire, insecure Claire, alone Claire. She was a smart girl and she was starting to realize that what was holding her up was her false sense of security. A failing sense of safety. So far Charlie was the only one who knew this, or at least, acknowledged it liked her enough to help. He was acting as her support beam. It wasn't needed at first, but now as day after day went by and her baby grew inside of her, her walls were caving in, and he was needed. He knew this, she knew this. Sometimes she thought that the doctor Jack knew this, and she had proved to Charlie her acceptance and gratitude last night.

Claire sat up and Charlie let her go slowly. "I think they need more water down here this morning. Who better than us to get it from the caves."

"I cant think of several. You should rest." Charlie countered.

"But I need to go to the caves anyway today to see Jack." She held up one of her hands as a reminder. The cloth Charlie had so gently wrapped was still in place over the four bloody marks on her palms.

"Guess you're right." He admitted. "I'm coming too." He stood up and brushed sand from his body, and Claire followed suit. They walked to the path to the caves that had been beaten down by feet through the jungle. Talking occasionally, they trekked through the narrow trail in single file. Claire was sure they would be reaching their destination any second. Only, it didn't come. Charlie looked around nervously and they continued for several more minutes before Claire became slightly dizzy and stopped. Charlie looked back at her.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Just my head, I'm a bit dizzy lately, nothing really. Give me a minute, I'll be fine."

"Alright." and with that he sat down next to her. She put her head in her hands and closed her eyes for a few seconds. Then she cleared her throat quietly and stood back up, her hand going to the small of her back.

"There. All better."

"Umm, Claire..." Charlie started, looking around. " I was wondering if maybe we haven't passed where we were supposed to-"

"Oh!" She exclaimed, her hand going to her stomach.

"What it it?" Charlie asked.

"The baby... He kicked." She smiled up at him.

Charlie sighed almost inaudibly, relieved. He had thought that she was feeling contraction pains and there they were, lost. No, he corrected himself, they weren't lost, just a tad bit off the beaten path.

"What's it feel like? To have something kicking inside of you?" He asked.

"You accustomed to cafeteria food?" She joked.

Taking his hand, she guided it to her belly, where the child was still kicking inside of her. A grin lit up across his face.

"It's.." Claire explained. "Just, weird."

"That's amazing." Charlie said in almost a whisper, his hand still pressed to her.

"Anyway. What were you saying?" She asked.

'Oh, nothing.. I was wondering if we weren't .."

"A smidgen off course?" she finished for him

"Yea, that's it."

"Can't really say we're lost...We're already so hopelessly lost just by being here... Kind of confusing to be lost within being lost.." She mused. Charlie nodded, looking around. Suddenly a roll of thunder overhead announced the oncoming of a drenching rain. Instantly water began to pour in buckets from the sky, the drops splattering on leaves and their heads, soaking them within seconds.

"Shit." Charlie cursed.

"Well this certainly complicates things." Claire announced.

We might get truly lost if we try to go wandering back in this." She said.

"Why not wait it out?" Charlie suggested.

Claire silently gave her consent by sitting on a rock and folding her arms loosely. Charlie tossed up the hood to his blue sweatshirt and glanced at the sky uncertainly.

"Could last for minutes, could last for hours. The weather's so unpredictable here." He said. Claire wondered briefly what would happen if while they were out here they were rescued. Surely somebody would notice? She was sure of it... and the rain pounded on.

"Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket  
Never let it fade away  
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket  
Save it for a rainy day  
For love may come and tap you on the shoulder some starless night  
Just in case you feel you want to hold her  
You'll have a pocketful of starlight." Claire sang softly through the rain and Charlie sang the chorus along with her. And in just one moment, despite all circumstances, they fell for eachother.

TBC

A/N.. Somehow the corny ending just seemed to be suiting :)) hoped you liked! Chap 4 on the way needs reviews to be encouraged though!


	4. Captives

1**For Claire/Charlie fans only :)**

**Disclaimer**: I love this new show. Its obviously not mine. If it was.. Well I wouldn't be here writing fanfics about it that's for sure.

**A/N:** please read and review  :)

**Summary:** Claire and Charlie have a confusing and unpleasant run-in with Ethan and some other unfriendly islanders.

**Chapter 4**

"Oh God.." Charlie muttered as he inched closer to Claire. She was lying unconscious on the dirt floor, her hands roughly bound in front of her. The room was semi-dark, one kerosene lamp in the far corner was all that was lighting the small confines of their prison. Her stomach wasn't swollen. She had her baby. But where was it? Was it even alive?

Charlie reached her and took her face in his hands. How many hours had he been unconscious? It felt like forever. His clothes were mostly dry, so he knew it had been a while. Her face was cold, as was the rest of her, no doubt the result of a chill from her wet clothes. In that moment more than any other he wished he could scoop her up and carry her to the beach where a helicopter would be waiting to take them away. But now here he was, the captive of someone by the name of Ethan. There were others, he guessed, because there was no way he and Claire could have been dragged off by one person. There had to have been more. Looking around him, Charlie saw that they were in a crudely built fort, with large frames of felled tree trunks and walls and a ceiling of bamboo. On one of the walls hung a large piece of paper with innumerable little tally scratches, like a calendar. He was guessing the black scratches were made from fire charcoal. Someone had been here a long, long time.

Claire's eyes fluttered open and she gasped, not focusing properly. He noticed with a flash of anger that her arms and one side of her face were black and blue with bruising. Surely these men, whoever they were, could have carried off a frail, pregnant girl without exerting any brute force? He heard slight pounding of rain on the roof as he waited for Claire to fully regain consciousness. She tried to sit up but was weak, and fell back. He tired to help her from behind and she tried to scream, but could only whimper feeble protests.

"Shh, no it's me, Charlie! Claire it's ok darling, shh, calm down..." He murmured in her ear. She seemed to relax a little upon hearing this, and when he wrapped her in his embrace and she went limp as a rag doll. He avoided the nasty bruises on her upper arms as he rocked her back and forth on the floor. Her face was buried in his chest, muffling her sobs.

"Charlie?"

"Im here love." Came his British accent floating back to her ears.

"My wrists hurt so.... Why did they tie me and not you?" She asked.

"Maybe because I was unconscious..."

"Oh, I remember them tying me up, there were four of them. All men. They tried to make me walk myself but I collapsed... I got too dizzy . But they knew you would wake up soon surely, and they still didn't tie you?"

"So you fainted?"

"No, I couldn't get up and they hit me...Then the larger of them dragged me back to my feet... Then I fainted and Im assuming I was carried the rest of the way..." She sniffed and Charlie wiped the tears from her cheeks for her as her hands were still bound.

She sat up and immediately noticed her stomach.

"Oh my god Charlie where's my baby?"

"I don't know.....I don't know Claire..."

She looked frantically around the tiny rectangular room and then, in a fresh burst of tears explained to Charlie what happened.

" I remember... Oh, how could I have forgotten? It must have been just three hours or so ago...I woke up and started to feel pains...." Here Charlie pulled her close for comfort and she put her hands on her now flat stomach. " They were coming really close together.. Someone was in the room with me.. You were still out cold...I had my baby... He was alright, he cried, I was so happy.. Alive...my little boy...he took him....away..." She tried to tell him between sobs and Charlie nodded his understanding.

"He's still here Claire he's around here somewhere... I don't even know if this is a one-room shelter or if there's more rooms beyond that door." He tilted his head in the direction of the bamboo door strapped together with strips of bark and vines.

"How could you listen for anything above the racket the rain's making..."

"Charlie we have to do something." Claire said after a silence.

"Here... Let me untie you..." She pushed her wrists up to him and he struggled with the knots before freeing her. He rubbed the marks on her wrist to bring circulation back into her cold hands. The cloth he had tied around the fingernail wounds on her palms were gone, leaving the open gashes sore-looking and naked.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

"Charlie we have to get out of here."

"We have to find your baby."

The two of them got up and Charlie held Claire's shoulders steady as she passed through a wave of dizziness and nausea that comes naturally after childbirth. Once steadied, they approached the door with caution. Charlie pressed his ear to it, but could hear nothing. With one look at Claire, he counted to three under his breath and pushed the door open. On the other side was not new rooms, but the jungle. They were situated on a hill, an awkward hut erected on a hill, in the middle of the jungle by the feel of it. Claire started running along the only visible path, and Charlie started off behind her at a sprint. Instead of letting up, the rain seemed to double, and they could see just enough through it to follow the beaten path. Suddenly they came upon a clearing, and what they saw caused Claire to give a cry and run forward. On the sopping ground, lie three dead men, blood spilt everywhere. It looked as if some struggle had taken place, but not between them or from another man. It looked like something huge, an animal maybe, had killed these men and left them here. That it didn't eat them, was the confusing part. Claire stared in horror at the bloody scene.

"These were the men." She announced. They were dark-skinned and their facial hair was long and uncombed. They were dressed like Indians, in skins and armed with guns...One of them even had a sharp-headed spear. Claire almost dropped to her knees when the faint sound of a crying infant came from the pack of one of the men. Charlie ran to it and opened the leather backpack, pulling out a crying infant wrapped in a single blanket. He handed it to Claire who cradled the boy to her chest and cried tears of relief and joy onto the blanket. Charlie couldn't believe their luck. Another half hour and the child would have died. Though none of it made sense, he didn't try to work it out. Ethan wasn't one of the bodies, but he had been with these men previously. He had his doubts that Ethan killed the large men. He turned from the gruesome scene to the one of pure happiness, the scene of Claire and her baby.

A crash in the bushes twenty or thirty yards off startled them both, and Charlie pushed Claire through the clearing and onto the continued path. They ran, though it appeared that nothing was following them. Once they were sure they were alone as one could be on the island, they slowed to a walk, Claire still spilling tears of joy. She wrapped the blanket around the infant tighter, and kept him warm by pressing him close to her chest. Charlie thanked god for the rain letting up, and the skies parted, late afternoon sunshine spilling through the leaves, making the events of that day seem like a horrible nightmare, and this was like waking to the arms of a loved one. Claire, Charlie, and the baby were soon back on the beach, and were met by a rush of people who had been organizing a search for them. Jack marveled at the healthy condition of the mother and child. Hurley pulled Charlie into a rather crushing hug, and even Sawyer came to spectate from a distance to see what the fuss was all about.

"So, no more blood loss, Claire?" Jack was asking her.

"Not since I came to, no." She answered.

"Came to? Like, regained consciousness?" Jack asked, confused.

"Umm.." Claire's face darkened.

"Has anyone seen Ethan?" Charlie asked.

Several people shook their heads.

"Not today." Boone said from behind Shannnon.

"Jack...." Charlie continued quietly, his words for the doctor only.

" We need to tell you some things.."

TBC


	5. With My Last Breath Ill Say Goodbye

1**For Claire/Charlie fans only :)**

**Disclaimer**: I love this new show. Its obviously not mine. If it was.. Well I wouldn't be here writing fanfics about it that's for sure.

**A/N:** please read and review  :) No flames please, as they are pointless and discouraging

**Summary:** Claire and Charlie are re-captured, and ... well.. Read it to find out..

**Chapter 5..**

Claire shifted her weight to her other foot and listened to Jack tell her all about the miracles of her easy childbirth and how lucky she was for them both to be alive and healthy. She was thankful, of course she was, but she didn't like reliving the incident. Sometimes at night it replayed in her head, and she would squint her eyes to try to relieve the image from the back of her eyelids, but instead they only sharpened focus and clarity. The capture, the hut, the uncertainty of where her baby had gone...More than once she would turn to check on her baby and feel Charlie's warm arm curl around her waist from behind as she tucked the blankets closer to the sleeping form of her child before her.

The infant would wake up in the night hungry and cry, and Charlie more often than not go up with her as she nursed and they would talk sleepily. There was a suitcase from the plane that was found with baby clothes and diapers, and Claire dreaded the day when they ran out. She would think of the child that was meant to wear the booties or tiny pants as she slid them onto her baby and feel so selfish that she had lived. She told Charlie this.

"Selfish?" Charlie whispered back to her one night as they were talking and she was rocking the restless child back to sleep.

"I know, it's dumb. But.. What right do we have to live and those other people that were on the plane with us to die? We were no better or more deserving then they probably were. And some of us less I'm sure. But here I am putting these little blue p.j.'s on my healthy baby while the child that was supposed to wear them, the baby they were bought for... is dead, along with his parents."

This caused Charlie to look down at his feet and open his mouth to say something several times before shutting it undecidedly.

"Which do you believe?" He asked finally.

"What?" Claire asked.

"Do you think that we're all victims of circumstance? Was the plane crash an accident? Are we here on accident? Is he here on accident?" He nodded his head towards the baby.

"Or is there a reason for everything? Is there a good reason that the lot of us crashed here and lived? If so, what for?" He finished quietly, his voice steeped in his accent.

"I wish I was more decided. I just don't know." She said flatly.

After a minute she looked down to find her unnamed baby asleep in her arms. She had decided she would give herself another few days to juggle names back in forth in her head before she decided on one. She and Charlie headed back to bed.

The following day was bright. Several people went to play golf out of lack of anything better to do. Claire sung to her son in light, airy tones, happy of his good mood. Charlie was re-filling the water bottles at the little stream. Sayid was recovering from a leg injury and was asleep in a cave nearby. Other than that the place was deserted. Her song died into a low hum and she lay her head against a cave wall to doze for a moment... Suddenly out of the bushes sprang several figures unlike the men they had previously been captured by. They sprang lightly on bare feet instead of treading on heavy boots as the other men had, and seemed more native. Charlie stood quickly and tried to attack one of them, wrestling on the ground. Another of these dark-skinned men came from behind and knocked him out cold. _Oh, no, not again...Why us? _Her scream rang out for only moments before she too was knocked unconscious.

His back strapped rigidly to something rough in the darkness of a cave, Charlie woke. His head was hurting, and he could feel the trickle of warm blood down his temple. He slowly allowed his mind to explore his senses. He could hear in back of him the sound of water echoing as it hit the back of the cave. His limbs were all intact, and in a moment he discovered he could move them within the restrictions of the rope binding him to this...rock?

"Claire." He called out experimentally.

"Charlie, I'm here." Came a weak answer. He could begin to make her out in the dark, tied to the same rock as he was, the water lapping around their chests.

"Claire.. Thank god. We'll get out of here, look, maybe someone will come."

"Charlie were in a cave probably on the other side of the island. The water's rising fast, no one will come. You've seen the tides come in...We're going to die here." She choked out.

"Yes Claire, we are." Charlie calmly stated. At this Claire controlled herself. She looked up, and now that her eyes were adjusted to the dark of the cave, she could see Charlie's hair almost draping in his blue eyes, looking at her filled with sadness, but calm resolution, and a hint of goodbye.

" I'm sorry you didn't get to raise your baby boy." He whispered. He longed to touch her face but his hands were expertly bound behind the rock.

A ball of emotion rose in Claire's throat and she wished with every fibre of her being that she could push back the tide and stop them from drowning, that she could free herself and Charlie and swim back to the bank. But she remained bound to the rock by the rope, tied to her fate.

"I'm sorry too." She said. They were both crying. Why were they just left there to die? What was so special about her baby that they took him and discarded them as nothing? Would Jack and Sayid and they others find him for her?

The water raised another inch in the course of two minutes, and it lapped at their necks in its salty coolness.

"Charlie. I'm so glad I met you... I'm so sorry we're going to die. I wanted to live with you... With you and my baby."

"Claire...I wish...Oh God, no not like this...." Charlie struggled against the roped that bound him to his death.

"Charlie.." She sobbed.

"I wish it ended differently Claire..." He managed.

"And yet.." He continued. " Here we are, tied to the same stone, dying together. Fate would have it huh? Isn't that how it's been all along? These strange twists of fate?"

The water rose another inch. They lifted their heads.

" I was supposed to meet you Claire. I know it. I was supposed to be on this island, and I'm supposed to die with you."

"As strange as it sounds Charlie, I'm glad you're the one I'm dying with. God I love you Charlie." The water rose another inch with the tide. It was at their lips now.

"Goodbye Charlie.."

"Goodbye Claire." And those were their last words.

The End


End file.
